• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1063

Part of Session 155: Changing linguistic norms in the audiovisual media (Other abstracts in this session)

Code-switching and code-mixing in media talk: linguistic description and lay perceptions

Authors: Mrázková, Kamila
Submitted by: Mrázková, Kamila (The Institute of the Czech Language of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic)

Due to its complicated history, the standard variety of Czech differs in many aspects from the central vernacular, a widespread interdialect known as Common Czech. This variety, differing mainly in phonological and morphological features from the standard (Sgall et al, 1992; Eckert, 1993), is spoken not only in Prague, but also throughout Bohemia and even in some western parts of Moravia (in total, approximately two thirds of the Czech Republic). As a sort of paradox, speakers of other local dialects and interdialects from Moravia (about one third of the Czech Republic) feel their language is closer to the standard than Common Czech, and they often associate the vernacular (not the standard, as many might expect) with the power exercised by the nation’s center, i.e. the capital, Prague (Wilson, 2010). During the period of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989) the mass media were owned and governed only by the state and the usage of non-standard varieties was restricted to a few genres. Since the fall of the regime in 1989, private media have filled the public space and both social and linguistic norms have shifted, even in public television and radio. As a consequence of this development, Common Czech began spreading in a more intense manner (Hedin, 2005). In this paper, I analyze two television programs which differ in genre (a political debate and a media talk show) in which code-switching and/or code-mixing occur, focusing on their perception by two groups of viewers – native speakers of Common Czech and speakers from northern Moravia.

References:

Eckert, E.(ed.) (1993): Varieties of Czech. Studies in Czech Sociolinguistics. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi.

Hedin, T. (2005): Changing Identities: Language Variation on Czech Television. Stockholm: Stockholm University.

Sgall, P. - Hronek, J. - Stich, A.- Horecký, J. (1992): Variation in Language. Code Switching in Czech as a Challenge for Sociolinguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Wilson, J. (2010): Moravians in Prague. A Sociolinguistic Study of Dialect Contact in the Czech Republic. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.